


Oathkeeper

by Amarxlen



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Can be taken as SoKai, Kairi-centric (Kingdom Hearts), Mentioned Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Mentioned Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Or not, Post-Kingdom Hearts I, Reader's Choice - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22552489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarxlen/pseuds/Amarxlen
Summary: Back home on the islands and all alone, Kairi comes to the realization that sometimes all she can do is wait. But that doesn't mean she has to like it.-*-Carefully, she outlined the star, the shape of her hand, the way her comet’s tail arm overlapped his. When that was done, she just as carefully began to fill it in, scratching the dark stone white. White as the inside of a Thalassa shell, or the light that had surrounded her and Sora in Hollow Bastion. White as a promise.
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 2





	Oathkeeper

_Oathkeeper_

Long after the world was completed in front of her, Kairi didn’t move. The golden motes of light had stopped falling, the blue-black light that Sora disappeared into faded away into a pure night sky. Familiar waves lapped at her feet, but they didn’t bring her peace the way they once had. Instead, she steadfastly ignored them. Her eyes were focused on a single spot on the horizon, hands clasped in front of her.

Something inside of her had called out to Sora before, some sort of power that had woken in her heart. It had brought him back to her. She knew it had. Kairi remembered how it had felt; the warmth in her heart and the single minded wish she’d had, even as the Heartless swarmed them.

_Please, Sora. Come back._

She didn’t even know how she had known this particular Heartless was him, she just… had. The same way she knew how many steps it took to get to the play island’s shack, or that if she reached out with both her hands, Sora and Riku would be there. It wasn’t something she had to think about. It was just a truth. A fact, in the way the sun set and the tides came in. 

Sora was out there. Riku too. They needed her, even if they never admitted it in so many words.

And so maybe if she just tried a little harder…

Closing her eyes, she stood there, and she waited. She waited for that warmth to come to her heart again, for a burst of light behind her eyelids, something. Anything. And then, so faintly she almost didn’t notice it, she felt it. A warmth, slowly working its way over her skin.

Her breath hitched, and her eyes shut tighter. A few more moments passed before she could gather the courage to open them again. When she did, the breath left her in a rush. The horizon was just as empty as it had been when she’d closed her eyes, only now the sun had started to rise over the ocean. The warmth she’d felt hadn’t come from inside of her, but from the sun. 

Her hands dropped to her sides as she stared at it as long as she could stand. Kairi knew she hadn’t imagined that strange power inside of her, so why… where was it now?

Kairi didn’t cry much, and her faith in Sora and Riku was unwavering. But tears began to prick at her eyes as she turned away from the ocean and the sun. It was waiting in Traverse Town all over again, except this time there was no one to help distract her from the waiting. 

The play island looked exactly the same as it always had — tranquil, dependable, _home_. Except she didn’t know what home was when she was all alone. The memories of her first home were faint at best, lost to time and no particular desire to remember. She didn’t know anything besides these islands and her friends. Their sudden absence made her feel small and vulnerable. Lonely.

Pressing her knuckles tightly to her mouth to stifle a sob, she cast her gaze around the island. The shack stood, empty and dark, the waterfall near it reflected the sunrise. To her left, three boats bobbed unknowingly in the waves, still tied to the dock. She could get in one of them. Cast it loose and row back to the main island to see what, if anything, awaited her. Or, a smaller voice whispered to her, she could pack it with supplies — she still had the list memorized, she’d repeated it to Sora enough times that she thought she’d never forget it.

She’d already made it halfway to the dock when she stopped abruptly.

_“You’d kind of be in my way.”_

Kairi had accepted it before, laughed at it even. It wasn’t exactly untrue. She couldn’t fight like Sora or Riku, and now it seemed that even the power that had saved Sora abandoned her, or at least gone back to sleep, as it had been before. But the words had stung less when she’d known that Sora was coming back. Kairi breathed in sharply and shook her head. She couldn’t let herself think like that. He’d come back before and he’d come back again, and this time, he’d have Riku with him. For the time being, she simply had to wait and believe in him, the way she had before. For now, she’d leave their boats tied up where they belonged, waiting, just like she was.

She was even less ready to return to the main island than she had been before. Fear had crept up; a fear that if she returned home, there would be nothing there waiting for her, just like there was nothing here on the play island. Nothing except…

Her gaze turned towards the tunnel to the Secret Place, the last place she remembered being on this island. Somehow she’d known she needed to get to the door in there. Something had felt indescribably wrong, like she’d been half asleep or falling or fading, she realized now. It made her stomach churn. But it was also the last place she’d seen Sora on the islands. 

She knew what she’d find inside. On the walls they’d scribbled carvings of their fantasies, castles and mermaids and, in the very back, next to the door that they’d never been able to open, portraits of each other. And she now had that same innate sense that everything inside the Secret Place was as it should be, with that door being firmly shut and locked. Without consciously deciding to, Kairi began walking towards the Secret Place. Maybe there she would feel a little less alone.

The path was worn and familiar under her feet, and when she entered the cave, light was streaming through the hole in the ceiling. The drawings were still there, exactly as she remembered them. A small smile lifted her lips as she remembered how they’d carved each one. Sora had asked for her help with the duck, but then insisted he finish it himself. She could tell exactly where her portion ended and his began. There was the mermaid she’d drawn after they’d heard a sailor’s tale about them. Littered everywhere were stars, carved by Riku, though she’d never seen him actually working on them. 

Everything was as it should be, except in the back, now that she was ready to look, she could finally see what Sora had added to their shared drawing. His hand, bridging the distance between them to offer her a paopu, the recentness of it apparent in how much brighter it was than the rest of the drawing. Tears welled in her eyes, and for a brief moment she could see him there. He had a rock in hand, turning to smile at her as if to say, _“See Kairi? Like I promised: I’m always with you, too.”_

She smiled, a breathless laugh passing her lips as her tears finally fell. There was only one thing she could do in response. Looking around on the ground, she found what must have been the rock that Sora used. She picked it up, cradling it in her palm as if that might make something happen. But it didn’t, and so she knelt down in front of the drawing, ready to finish it. 

Carefully, she outlined the star, the shape of her hand, the way her comet’s tail arm overlapped his. When that was done, she just as carefully began to fill it in, scratching the dark stone white. White as the inside of a Thalassa shell, or the light that had surrounded her and Sora in Hollow Bastion. White as a promise.

_“Wherever you go, I’m always with you.”_

White as an oath to be kept no matter what.

_“I’ll come back to you, I promise!”_

Her tears had dried, and her drawing was done. Suddenly tired, she rested her forehead against the rock wall, palm flattening over Sora’s paopu.

“I know you will.”


End file.
